1. Field of the Invention in particular, to target marking systems responsive to sensed movement.
2. Description of Related Art
Beam sources, such as quantum cascade lasers and other like lasers, are known to be inefficient. In particular, although these beam sources may be capable of emitting a beam of radiation in the thermal or optical band, such beam sources generally require large amounts of power, and produce a large amount of heat, during operation. These inefficiencies are compounded when the beam sources are used for extended periods of time and/or when such beam sources are used to emit a beam at a high duty cycle. As a result, it is difficult to use such beam sources in combat, law enforcement, and/or other like applications since these applications typically require the use of a portable power source, and it is difficult to provide such beam sources with a portable power supply having sufficient capacity for extended use.
To compensate for these difficulties, such beam sources are typically controlled to emit a pulsed beam, thereby reducing the average power draw and heat generation of the beam source, while increasing the visibility of the emitted beam. It may also be possible to reduce the pulse rate and/or the duty cycle of the beam source, thereby further reducing the power required and heat generated by the beam source. However, such reduced pulse rates and/or duty cycles may not be appropriate for all applications. In particular, when employing the beam source as a component of a target marker, a relatively high pulse rate and/or duty cycle may be required to mark targets while the target marker is being moved rapidly by the user. Such rapid movement may occur when, for example, the user sweeps the target marker from left to right upon entering a room or other potentially dangerous environment. A high pulse rate and/or duty cycle may also be required to mark rapidly moving targets since, to mark such targets, the user may also be required to sweep the target marker to maintain a mark on the target.
The various embodiments set forth in the present disclosure are directed toward overcoming the problems discussed above.